Heel On-Leash

When we’re heeling, we use a lure to maintain their attention, and reward them for accurate body-positioning.

Polite greetings take practice.  It’s a good idea to train your dog to automatically sit when you meet another person, especially if they’re with another dog.

In crowded urban areas, there are lots of distractions for your dog.  Give them time to get used to new and unfamiliar surroundings.  Classically condition them to enjoy different environments.

Your dog is likely to get over-excited while meeting people on the street.  So repeat it over and over again until they’re calm enough that you can have them sit to say hello.

An effective trainer can switch immediately from sweet praise to stern reprimand.  Use the tone of your voice to let your puppy now when you like what they’re doing and when you don’t.

Dogs will follow you as long as you make it fun.  Make it a game and turn around every time they get ahead of you.  Clap yell and run away if they lag behind.

If your puppy gets stuck in position, kneel down, scratch the ground and call to them.  Pulling on the leash is only going to make them more anxious and less likely to follow.

Socialization is a life long process.  If  your dog doesn’t have regular interactions with new people and dogs, they will slowly become anti-social to strangers.

Controlled heeling is no easy task.  At the beginning it’s a good idea to separate the turns from the straight-aways.  Once they’ve mastered that, you can slowly start to combine the two.

After you’ve mastered off-leash heeling, the move to on-leash heeling is easy.  Don’t let the leash get tight, or you’ll end up with a leash-puller who ignores you.